Still nothing.
Then—bump.
A soft jolt rocked my car. I whipped my head forward, mouth dropping open.
“Oh no. Ohno no no.” I threw the car in park, flung open the door, and stormed around the front like I was about to personally conduct a citizen’s arrest.
“You had ONE JOB!” I shouted at the tinted windshield. “Don’t hit parked cars! Are you taking lessons from thelastlimo driver who hit me? Because let me tell you, buddy, I’ve done this dance before and I swear to all things holy?—”
The driver’s door opened.
Out stepped Topher.
The very man I had just vowed to forget.
My mouth dropped open, and the words caught somewhere between my brain and my throat. I blinked, half convinced I was imagining him.
“You’re driving a limo?” I sputtered, trying to wrap my head around the absurdity of it.
Topher raised his hands, looking somewhere between apologetic and amused. “Well, I wasn’t supposed to be. But I saw you leaving, and I had to stop you.”
I crossed my arms, dumbfounded. “So let me get this straight—you auctioned yourself off on a date, thenblockedme in with your limo. And now you’re just here, standing in front of my car, like this is normal?”
He winced, but then a slight smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, well, I didn’t think it through as clearly as I could have. But if it helps, I brought you something.”
I was about to ask what in the world he could have brought that would make any of this better when he reached into his pocket and pulled out something small and familiar, a glint of silver catching the faint parking lot light. I froze, heart stuttering. It was my locket—the tiny silver heart I’d lost months ago, the one that had been my last, most precious link to my parents. I hadn’t dared to hope I’d see it again.
My breath caught, and tears pricked my eyes. “How…where…when?” I stammered, reaching out to take it, my fingers brushing the cool metal. I could hardly believe it was real.
Topher gave a small, almost nervous smile, watching my reaction with that soft look in his eyes. “I hired a private investigator. Turns out that your old landlord sold it to a pawn shop. It took some legwork, but my team finally tracked it down and got it back for you.” He scratched the back of his neck. “The PI found a few other things too.”
“Like what?”
“First, the airport shuttle company? It’s under new management. Your old boss Jerry was fired months ago. Turns out there were a lot of complaints against him. You weren’t the only one.”
“Couldn’t have happened to a better man.”
“And the limo driver,” he went on. “The investigator found a long history of insurance fraud. He filed a claim after the accident, but once they pulled his record, the case was dropped. Apparently, he doesn’t need that walker after all, and he has a background of causing accidents.”
I threw up my hands. “Itoldyou he backed into me! And his knees worked just fine.”
“His medical record agrees,” Topher said, a half-smile forming. “You were right all along.”
I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. I swallowed, gripping the locket tightly in my hand. The weight of it and its history came flooding back. How my parents had given it to me on my sixteenth birthday, how it had traveled with me through every move. Losing it had felt like losing them all over again.
My heart swelled, and a tear slipped down my cheek. “You went to all that trouble just to get this back for me?”
Topher let out a quiet breath. “I knew what it meant to you. I couldn’t stand the thought of you being without it. I wanted you to know that someone else cares about the things you care about.”
I looked up at Topher, emotions I couldn’t control spilling onto my face. “Thank you. I—I thought I’d never see this again.”
He seemed to read my expression and offered a small, apologetic smile. “You have no idea how hard it was not to go over to you the second I saw you tonight.” His voice was soft, almost shy. “But I wanted to have this in hand first.”
“So you ignored me because of this?”
“I had an assistant bring it at the last minute. It was a bit of an undercover operation. I didn’t want to risk seeing you and not being able to give you this.”
I clutched the locket tighter, feeling the flood of gratitude and something deeper I hadn’t let myself feel before. “I read about your donation to Bright Futures.”
